BOOK TROPES: WHICH DO WE BURN OR EMBRACE?

I like complaining. Don’t get me wrong, I love books. But, sometimes, they can be pretty damn annoying.

I’m pretty sure that everything is now becoming a book trope, and “trope” automatically seems to mean “thing I hate” and that is sad. WHY DO WE HATE BOOKS?!

(also, who is super bad at blogging consistently? MEEEEE!)How can we not love books? They’re amazing, right??? They’re AMAZING, right?? I mean sure, you can love something and find them annoying, right? I MEAN OF COURSE. I love blogging, but WORDPRESS, OH YOU FRUSTRATE ME SOMETIMES. And so now, because May already said why WordPress is so annoying sometimes*, I’m just going to talk about why books annoy me.

I know, I’M SO ORIGINAL.

There are a lot of basic things that everyone I automatically list in my head when I think “THING I HATE”:

Chosen Ones

people who hate cake WHOAREYOUAREYOUHUMAN

Insta-love.

SOULLLL MATES.

BICKERING / DRAMA.

*check out that amazing non-self-promo

OHHHH THIS ANNOYS ME. I mean, HOW THE HELL DOES THIS EVEN WORK? This is actually the most mind-blowing plot twist. How do these really well-trained people just let some amateur swan on in and do what they’re supposed to do, without a care in the world?

How. How does this recently-average-person even keep up with these amazing kick-ass people? I couldn’t, you probably couldn’t (no offence). I mean, just HOW. HOW. FREAKING HOW??????????????2. You Have Powers but Didn’t Know It!!!

This is similar to the one above, but I just want to rant, ok?

How can this person just have NO IDEA? HOW? I’m dumbfounded. Okay, yeah, it must be pretty damn cool, but honestly, how did they have no idea? Just. How. SURELY YOU WOULD HAVE NOTICED BEFORE.

Examples:I guess City of Bones?

Percy Jackson.

Harry Potter 100% (He figures it out, sort of? BUT HOW DID HE NOT KNOW BEFORE?)

Alia(is that her name?) in Shadow and Bone.

3. Girl’s-Life-Changes-Because-of-a-Boy.

This could be a girl changing because of a girl, a boy because of a boy, it doesn’t matter. It annoys me anyway it happens.

This is literally one of the most annoying ones to read. Watching a someone change because of who they’re dating is actually painful and makes me want to cry. How can the other person be okay with the fact that they are making another person change? HOW.

4. The Love Triangle.

This can actually not make me want to impale myself, surprisingly. There are sometimes when I think that it’s actually done okay/well. For example:

City of Bones,

The Infernal Devices.

this isn’t just Cassandra Clare, I promise.

The Raven Boys.

Dreamology.

Love, Rosie.

Times where it’s not done so well:</big>One Memory of Flora Banks.

Throne of Glass.

There are probably some more that I can’t remember.

5. The Naive Martyr / Nonchalance About Death.

Ohhhh this one annoys me a lot. I don’t get how people. are. so. naive. It really annoys me, because I don’t get it how they can say “oh yes, I’ll just die to get you this bracelet back”. I get that they want to save the world, but I don’t get why they’re just so willingto die. Or, they just won’t even consider another option.

Can they just not be so silly? Mate, please?

It legitimately makes me want to gouge out their eyes with a spork because, well, they deserve it ok?

6. Society Is Dying Omg!!!!!!!

this one is just overdone to the point where I can’t deal sometimes. Sometimes, I love it, sometimes I like it. Most of the time, I don’t. I find it pretty damn overdone to the point where I can’t even read it. I don’t even want to think about it sometimes. I like it a lot of the time, don’t get me wrong, but I’m not even that much of a fan of futuristic things.

Where I liked it:Illuminae / Obsidio (these kinda count??)

The Pursuit of Zillow Stone.

Warcross.

Where I was meh about it:Divergent (it actually started out okay but went downhill)

Replica (I couldn’t get more than 100 pages in)

7. Do They Even Go To School?

I get that, yeah, school probably isn’t that interesting to write about, but is there not homework, or assignments, or clubs? DO THEY EVEN HAVE HOBBIES*????? Seriously?

They don’t even bring it up sometimes? They don’t even think about it? For example, City of Bones—A BOOK I LOVE SO MUCH—even has this. I love that book, but the first time that I read it, my thoughts were, “why the hell doesn’t Simon just go back to school? Does Clary not care about school?”

I get it, BUT I DON’T GET IT AT THE SAME TIME.

*says a really lethargic person. . .

Okay, I can be a realllllll sucker for this one, but I’m a little tired of it?? I love that there are less “perfect bad/popular boys“, for example in The Upside of Unrequited, there’s a geeky, normal, guy and he’s lovely and!! SO SWEET!! and it wasn’t all about someone falling for a really popular guy for once!!

And urgh the “Perfect” character. . . SURELY YOU CAN’T DO SOMETHING???? And I find that they’re really arrogant sometimes?? literally all the time. And they’re 6732% self-absorbed and most of the time I just want to stab them in the back with a twig… off of a cliff*.

* I’m not violent ok?

Because I’m super lazy, here’s a list of the remaining tropes I’d like to mention:

9. The Heroine’s Dreaded Role of Queen!!:I mean… I guess they don’t have training… but they don’t need to be all “JGNJKRNGJKRSNG I DONT WANT TO BE A QUEEN!! When, really, couldn’t you just like, get someone to help you?

10. A “Strong” Female Character:The ones that literally NEVER allow anyone to help them??? Get a little big for their boots? Get a little bit annoying?? URGH no, I don’t like them. I’m all for being a strong, independent woman and being amazing, but sometimes, the way it’s done is just dfkgnkgn. OR, when the books are meant to be about a strong female character, and she never does anything for herself!!

11. A Guy is Unreasonable Because of Personal Trauma:Seriously. Stop. Putting. Your. Problems. On. Everyone. Else. Stop being mean to people because you’re not okay!! They!! Don’t!! Deserve!! it!!

What book tropes do you love? Which do you hate? What other tropes are there that I didn’t mention that you like/dislike? What are some of the most frequent tropes you come across in books? Let me know!

39 thoughts on “BOOK TROPES: WHICH DO WE BURN OR EMBRACE?”

do they even go to school????? LMAOOO that is an amazing question that I ask myself over and over again. Love triangles can go into the fiery pits of hell. I also really appreciate the Robb Stark gif it tied in everything. RIP.

I love, love, love your blog. I read this post with trepidation, hoping I hadn’t used any of the tropes in my novels. Phew, I think I avoid future wrath from my readers. (I’m being optimistic, as I’m not published yet.)
I hate instant mushy love, where’s the tension and anticipation?! I love the build up.

and omg yesssss. tbh love triangles are so obnoxious and unrealistic and I GUESS there are a few times where it's not that bad bc it's not as angsty but STILL. like??? not even ONE person is crushing on me???? how the frick did you get TWO????

and HAHAHHAHAHA when people literally don't care about death or are like "I WILL DO IT TO SAVE MY COUNTRY" I'm just like… really. (even tho I write it in my books too AAAHH) like I'm 90% sure you're at least a LITTLE scared to die??

This is an Amazing post!!! All of these annoy me! Especially when a Girl changes for a guy!! WHY?!
Some books though I like for their annoying tropes are: Starcrossed, (anything by Cassandra Clare)
But others just frustrate me!! Love triangles are the worst as someone always gets hurt- usually me 🤗

lmao i can relate to this post so hard!!! I HATE IT WHEN A GIRL’S LIFE IS TURNED UPSIDe DOWN WHEN A GUY COMES AND HE’S LIKE ‘yer my soulmate’ and he’s really annoying and conceited and ALL UP IN HER HAIR and just no. stop

All these characters in books we could never, ever stand in real life, suddenly awesome because they’re in a book. I’m just really, really tired of jerkish characters getting away with anything just because of past trauma.
And love triangles? Please, can we be more original with them? That would be very, very helpful. Because most love triangles are literally the same thing, over and over and over again. And are girls really that stupid and indecisive? And what guy hangs around waiting for a girl to break up with her current BF?
If a guy is hanging around waiting, I’m going to call him out on it. If I was Alexander Hamilton, I’d probably challenge him to a duel.

Yes! I mean, obviously they have some issues that they need to sort out, but in real life they wouldn’t be putting it on other people the same way they do in books.
YESS! I think love triangles aren’t that original, and especially when one of them is the typical “jerk” bad boy that’s just trying to break up a relationship, even if they did have feelings for someone.

Great post! I absolutely loved this! And I agree with everything you just said!!! The first one happens so much! I just seems like a convenient way to move the plot and to further demonstrate how the character is “the chosen one”. But seriously, a character that has never picked up a weapon suddenly raised a sword and in a convenient two weeks time is kicking the butts of life long warriors?? No. No, I say!!

Did I perhaps give you inspiration for this post? (hahah) gahh I hate the dark, broody bad guys! Can you not act like a normal person? That school thing is weird, don’t you have any homework? One I also always wondered was why there is NEVER any mention of using the bathroom? Like come on… you never need to use the toilet?

Thank you so much!!
Urgnjdng IKR it’s so unrealistic!! and it drives me insane aahah.
urgh IKR. For some reason, in contemporaries, I cannot deal with a love triangle, but in fantasy, I can actually tolerate the odd love triangle??? As long as it ends swiftly ahahah

Firstly – I DIDN’T KNOW YOU READ WARCROSS DID YOU LIKE IT??? I FINISHED IT THREE DAYS AGO I THINK
Right. Book tropes. I very much dislike love triangles because it hits too close to home; sudden emergencies of power annoy me. I liked Illuminae so much because Kady was just utilising what she knew already; in Gemina, Ella was already AWESOME soooo yess.
I din’t mind the strong female character one IFFFF they explain why exactly they are how they are or strong clues are given. I like stories that are quite character-driven e.g… Well I just like Warcross bc of the twisty stuff yayyy!
Insta-love makes me very, very, very angry. Ugh. UGH.